Roots of Resilience

 

Ella Monsen Christensen

I have been documenting the early life of my great-grandmother Gabrielle “Ella” Christensen, a Norwegian immigrant.  Her father, a fisherman, was caught up in a storm off the coast of Norway and never returned home, leaving his wife a young widow with three small children.  One by one, she sent her children to relatives in the United States in hopes of a better life for them.  Ella was the oldest of the children and first to make that trip at the age of 20.  Her mother worked as a “washer woman” to pay her fare.

Ella’s destination was Howard, South Dakota to the home of her paternal aunt, Ingeborg Rye. While I was happy to find so many details about Ella’s life, which was my primary goal, what I found as a backstory was even more interesting.

Aunt Ingeborg immigrated March 1, 1889 as a 35-year-old single woman.  She married a homesteader, Ole Rye, and they settled down on his farm in Miner County, South Dakota.  Eleven months later, she gave birth to their only child, a boy named Ole, and five days after that her husband died.  She was suddenly left as a single immigrant woman with a newborn, and no means of support but a homesteaded farm. So what did she do?  She farmed.  With a baby.  In fact, in 1892, she “proved up” the homestead and her farm was granted to her free and clear.  In 1904 her niece Ella came to the United States to her Aunt Ingeborg and there she not only learned English, but probably a whole lot about digging deep and doing what you need to do to make it in this world.  Eventually Ella moved to nearby Huron, and Aunt Ingeborg and her son continued to farm for at least another 20 years. 

This is what I love about family history.  I want my granddaughters to know that they come from strong roots and that there are some remarkable women in their ancestry. 

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensn - Part 6 - The End

  Part 6 of Pete's Story - read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here.

On New Year’s Day, 1952, life took a major change again. Their daughter Sylvia and her family had come to Gardena for lunch and while Ella was fixing the potatoes she got dizzy, so Sylvia had her lay down for a while. Ella fell asleep and when Sylvia had checked in with her about 4:00 p.m. Ella said her leg had “gone to sleep” and her hand felt funny, so they called the doctor who came right out to the house. He said it was just the flu and she’d be fine in a few days. The neighbor, Gretchen, who was close to Pete and Ella, said she had the same thing happen but her hand kept going to sleep and it lasted for about 24 hours. By this time Ella was feeling better, and feeling encouraged at the flu diagnosis, as she had feared it was a stroke or something else more serious. No one was overly concerned, and the neighbor offered to look in on Ella when Pete was at work the following day. Several days later Ella was still paralyzed but could move her fingers a little. Pete would take care of her first thing in the morning and then Gretchen would come over and get Ella’s breakfast and help her get dressed. Gretchen would come back and get lunch, and Pete was typically home by 3:00 p.m. and take over then. They came to realize that this was not the flu, but a stroke as Ella had feared. They got her a wheelchair and in it she could maneuver around the house a little, and she began improving fairly quickly. She had regained use of her right arm except for her fingers. She could hold things but was unable to write, and still unable to walk. Gretchen made her do as much as she could for herself to keep her muscles exercised, and Ella took a great deal of pride every time she could do a little more on her own. Pete, to everyone’s surprise, not only took care of Ella but everything else that needed to be done in an impressive manner. He cooked all the meals and kept the kitchen “spic and span.” They may have spent their married lives fighting and arguing but no one took better care of her when she needed it.

Eventually Ella learned to walk again, although with a bad limp and needing a cane. She moved slowly and tired easily. She also re-learned to write but with a very shaky hand. Eventually she began doing some household chores and cooking. She even got to the point where she could walk next door to Gretchen’s to visit.

While her recovery was steady, her health was still a struggle. Pete told Lillian, “She had to set up in bed last week, she couldn’t get her breath lying down, so I took her to the doctor. He said her heart was not working right, it was too weak.”

Ella died on April 8, 1952 at the age of 67.

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After the death of her mother, Pete’s daughter Lillian felt it was her duty to move to California and take care of her father. Her husband Bill put his farm up for rent and the family packed what they needed and drove to California. The plan was for them to live with Pete and for Lillian to take care of him and the house. Bill got a job where Pete worked, but for a man who had spent his entire life taking care of his crops and livestock, working an assembly line in the city was devastating. But Lillian was very much like her father – of strong constitution – and felt very strongly that they needed to do the right thing by her father.

The kids had wonderful memories of their time in Gardena. Pete took them to museums, zoos, to the beach, and encouraged them to read books from his large collection. He had a very docile old white horse that he kept for the kids to ride. One of his favorite things to do was go to the beach and go diving for shells. The kids were amused with him standing on his head with his feet sticking out of the water. The boys loved spending so much time outside, and the girls loved their “grown-up” city high school. But the adults were not so happy with the arrangement. Pete could be quite difficult to get along with and liked to be in control. He had gone from living a quiet life to having two extra adults and four rambunctious kids underfoot. Lillian didn’t appreciate his rigid stubbornness and desire to control everything. Bill was never good enough in Pete’s mind, even though he gave up everything meaningful in his life (except his family) to take care of Pete, and Pete liked to bicker with them in return. Shortly after the first of the year, 1953, Bill, Lillian and their kids packed up their car and left Gardena to go back to their previous life.

Pete retired from his factory job in 1954 and was getting tired of being home alone all the time. Alone, except for Butch, his beloved black cocker spaniel, that is. And his outdoor pet squirrel, who would eat nuts out of his hand. But that was soon to change as his daughter-in-law was ill and Pete took care of her while his son was at work; no doubt Pete was often hard to get along with, but his actions show that he was there for his family when he was needed, and went the extra mile for those he cared about. He took care of his daughter-in-law during the day and got her to her doctor’s appointments two to three times a week, and offered the extra support she needed.

In 1955, for a variety of reasons it was decided that Pete would trade houses with his son and daughter-in-law. Besides Pete’s house being bigger and more suitable for a family, his daughter-in-law was much more comfortable in Pete’s house. He said she didn’t like her old neighbors, and Pete wasn’t sure he would either, but he made the trade anyway. It turned out well after Pete did a little remodeling and ended up liking his new neighbors despite his initial misgiving. Butch, however, didn’t like it at all – it had a fenced in yard and he couldn’t get out. Pete also splurged and had a phone put in, and in addition, made plans to plant his new back yard.

He was diagnosed with diabetes after coming to the United States. He would take a set amount of insulin each day and try to keep his eating habits and his activity level fairly consistent, and had always been able to feel if his blood sugar was high or low, and handle it accordingly. But as he got older, it was harder and harder for him to know if he was going to pass out, or if his sugars were high or low. If he worked a little harder than normal, his blood sugar would plummet. In 1956, Pete was having problems with anemia as well. But still, when his daughter-in-law got sick again, he took her to her appointments twice a week until she was better, in addition to getting shots for his anemia three times a week.

Just in case Pete is coming off as a “softy” as his health was declining, he still retained a bit of his orneriness. He felt the doctor was stringing him along with the appointments and the shots several times a week, when he didn't feel bad to begin with. So Pete told him flat out that he’s not coming back till he’s stick enough to actually feel it.

Feeling lonely, Pete was thrilled that three of his four American sisters were getting together and would be spending time at his house. Katrina, Laura, and Mary (from Omaha, Nebraska) came to visit and got along surprisingly well, considering their history of squabbling. He was quite impressed, until he got each one separately and they each had plenty to say about the others. It sounds like Pete was not the only Christensen who could be hard to get along with!

In his spare time, Pete watched wrestling on TV 3 times a week and when there were no matches, he worked on his yard. He planted a number of rose bushes and a Walnut tree. He then decided to put in a whole new lawn, and the increased activity caused him to burn more sugar than usual, resulting in a sudden drop of blood sugar. Luckily he did not pass out, and made it into the house. He ate dinner and came out of it ok, but he did not remember exactly what he cooked. He was to take medicine three times a day and his insulin shot every morning, but admitted sometimes he would forget his medicine.

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With his tenuous health situations, he made the decision to stop driving as he couldn’t tell if he was going to pass out and he didn’t feel it was safe for him to be behind the wheel anymore. He sold his car but felt lost without it so he bought a bike to get around but it caused his blood pressure to increase so he needed to sell that as well. He wrote, “It seems all I can do it play with the dog and think of the old times.” He wrote in a letter to his daughter Lillian, “I sure love to hear from you often as I’m alone most of the time, sometimes I get tired of my own company and that is most of the time.”

One night shortly afterward he slid off his bed and fell onto the floor, where he stayed most of the night. Someone checked on him the next morning and discovered him on the floor. He had had a stroke overnight and was unable to walk or stand up alone. He and Butch went to stay with his daughter for a couple of days. In an unfortunate accident, Butch got out of the fenced in yard, ran into the street and was hit by a car. Butch died immediately. In those couple of days it was apparent that Pete was not going to be able to live alone anymore. His daughter Edna in Harlingen, Texas, wanted him to live with her family.  Pete had wanted to live in Harlingen since he left Huron all those years before, and felt Edna's family genuinely wanted him there. Edna’s husband Johnny was a pilot and flew there to get him.  Despite the private plane accommodations, he had a hard time making the trip. As a result of the stroke he could not use his left side very well, but was hoping for improvement “now that I don’t have anything to worry about.”

Pete loved it at Edna’s. He and Edna had one major thing in common – they both liked to fish, so they went as often as they could. Due to his physical limitations, he had to fish while sitting on the bank and he didn’t catch a lot of fish that way. But when he did, there was abundant black bass and trout. Pete said Edna was a good nurse, helping him dress every morning and making sure he was eating. As a bonus, Edna’s little grandson kept him entertained.

He did miss being able to do any meaningful work – as this was the first time in his life that he couldn’t garden or do any outdoor work at all.

As the months passed by, Pete was not improving. He wanted to visit in South Dakota, and Edna’s husband was trying to trade a piece of land for a 4-passenger plane. If he could make that happen, they’d look at a trip to South Dakota. But he needed help getting in and out of the car, and moved extremely slowly. He couldn’t walk much and had balance issues, plus his memory was failing. He wanted to try to exercise but the doctor said it’s too hard on his heart. His legs swell up when he walks, but he was glad he was not in any real pain. The trip from Gardena to Harlingen had been hard enough, and his health had certainly not improved, so they were unable to make the trip to South Dakota. He told Lillian that Johnny and Edna take good care of him and he really feels they want him there.

His diabetes continued to be a problem. He would pass out and need to be helped up off the floor. He admitted it’s hard to know if he’s taking too much or too little insulin and he would pass out either way, and it was difficult for the family to know exactly what to do. On one occasion he was out cold for two hours, so he could not be left alone at all.

In February of 1960, after seven months in Harlingen, Pete had another stroke which resulted in his death at age 75.

And so the chapter closed on the life of the young immigrant with $4 in his pocket and a dream in his heart.

Some photos courtesy of Jenny Sasaki

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensn - Part 5 - California

  Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

Pete and Ella’s lives changed again in 1946 when the decision was made to sell the farm. Pete’s farm auction not only included his land, but also a nice selection of farm equipment. His livestock was also on the auction block, and included 33 head of cattle, four head of horses, one Black Angus bull and 200 hens. In addition, everything in the house was being sold, furniture and personal items.

There’s not a lot of indication of why the decision was made – perhaps he was tired of the ups and downs of farming, or perhaps he was tired of the often brutally cold weather of South Dakota. Or maybe he just wanted to retire, as he was 62 years old. Later on, Pete mentioned in a letter to his daughter, “I’m sorry to hear you are having a bad winter in S. Dakota. You know I believe life is too short to put up with it” which might be a good indication of his motives. Regardless, they had no clear plans of what they were going to do next, except to get in the car and start driving.

Their first destination was Iowa to visit his cousins who still lived in the same area where Pete lived after immigration. After a short visit there, it was onward to Harlingen, Texas at the end of November, where their daughter Edna lived. Pete fell in love with the area, but Ella did not, as she mentioned in a letter, “I’m afraid I’m stuck here.” She wondered how long it would be before her husband bought property and how much he’d “sink into it.” She wrote, “He is sure not going to sink anything that belongs to me in it till I’ve been here long enough to see how I like it. I still want my trip to California, but won’t be a bit surprised if I don’t (get it).” They had looked at houses the week before and found a really nice one, furnished, with a good shady fenced in yard and Pete fell in love with it. Ella said, “I don’t believe I’ll be able to get him out of Texas.” The only thing that appealed to Pete more than living in this beautiful home in Texas was the price. They wanted $7,000 for it, but he wanted to get it for $6,000. Ella told him if he was successful, she’d live there. Thanks to Pete’s frugal nature and the unwillingness of the seller to budge, Ella was off the hook.

One thing about Texas that Ella was impressed with was how they did laundry. She said, “There are places where they use machines and get hot water and wash. It’s kind of handy when you can get a washing machine.”

Next on their traveling itinerary was California, to be followed by Medford, Oregon. The trip to California was not a surprise, as Ella really wanted to visit there and Pete’s sisters Katrina and Laura were there. But Medford, Oregon is a mystery and it doesn’t appear they ever made it there.

Within a month, they had found a house in Gardena, California and purchased it but were unable to get their utilities turned on right away so they stayed a few days at Katrina’s. Pete told of their adventure with their car –

“I suppose Mother told you about our bad luck with the car, but I know she really didn’t know how it happened so I’ll tell you, ha ha. We went out to Silver Lake, that is where my sister Katrine is living. We stayed there all night as we didn’t have our gas and electricity turned on. So in the morning we went out to our car, it was parked on a hillside, almost a mountain. The brake alone would stop it from going downhill so I left it in low gear. You know it was foggy in the evening so the windshield was clouded over. I got a rag and started to clean it off. Mother climbed in the car. And first thing I knew the car started downhill, very slowly at first. She tried to get out but was afraid to let go of the car. There she was half out and half in, and I had to pull hard on her to make her let go. It’s a wonder she did not get hurt. You know when she got in the car she pushed the lever with her legs and got it out of gear. Next time I’m going to leave it in reverse. The car went across the street and dropped about 10 ft then over another garage and a drop almost straight down of about 20 ft and landed up against a house. It made a big dent in the wall of the house. I’m glad it was not a brick wall. The car never even turned over. A Ford can really take it. Estimated damage to car $180.00 The man who owns the house claims damage to house and lot $3000. A darn good thing I had insurance, don’t you think? It cost $25 to get the car hoisted up to the street again with a crane and 2 trucks. I was able to run the car after it was pulled up. It had one crumpled fender, two damaged running boards, 3 broken windows, broken grill and bent bumper. I’m sure it could never do that again, and be able to run.“

Meanwhile, Pete and Ella were busy getting their new house set up to their liking. The first order of business for Pete was putting in a garden, and he was happy his radishes were already coming up. Ella went to Los Angeles and bought a new rug for the front room, spending $140 which in today’s money is $2,270! Ella had her own money, so Pete obviously knew better than to argue about it, but he did say, “I can see where I’ll have to stay in the kitchen or walk on newspaper, ha ha!”

Their house was just built the year before, as were the others in the neighborhood. There were no trees or bushes, and only a few flowers planted. It was 6 miles to several beaches, 14 miles to Los Angeles and 14 miles to Long Beach. Gardena experienced a big spurt in building, and a big supermarket was about 1 mile from them where two years prior there was nothing at all. They lived 1 ½ blocks away from a smaller grocery store.

A farmer from South Dakota finding himself on a Los Angeles freeway must have been an interesting situation. In Pete’s words: “You should try to drive a car in San Diego or Los Angeles. They pass you on both sides and if you have to make a right or left turn, and aren’t in the right place it’s just too bad. They are smashing cars every day. I don’t want a new care for awhile.” His sisters Laura and Katrina and their families were helping them get settled and making them feel at home. They also got a little dog named Pee Wee, who slept in a box in the kitchen.

Pete planting his garden

Over the course of the next couple of years Pete transformed the plain yard into something lush and absolutely beautiful. Besides a vegetable garden, he installed a Koi pond, kept 27 hens, planted many plants, shrubs and flowers including a stunning rose garden, over 300 strawberry plants, grape vines, and an orchard of lemon, orange, peach, apple and apricot trees, plus two almond trees on his two large lots. Ella made wine from the apricots. You can take the man off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the man.

Life in California seemed to be agreeing with Pete and Ella. They went to the beach regularly, worked in the yard, and socialized with their family and neighbors. But Pete, who had worked since he was about 10-12 years old, decided he needed to have a job. Pete mentioned he has to drive 11 miles to work every day to South Gate – where he held what he called a “good job.” The company he worked for made hoists and cranes.

Pete worked primarily in the supply room and the assembly department. He said, “I have to keep track of supplies and tools. I have to be bonded for $2000 as I have a key to the place. I start work at 5:45 a.m. and go home at 2:15 p.m. I get $60 for 40 hours and sometimes I work overtime and get time and a half. One week I made $72, not bad for an old man ha ha.” The exact name of the company he worked for isn’t known for sure, but it may have been Spanmaster, which produced cranes. South Gate had an industry boom, with 35 different manufacturing plants by 1940, so it could have been another company as well although Spanmaster was known for making cranes.

Ella sitting on the steps of their lovely home in Gardena

Pete and Ella got a TV early in 1952 and both enjoyed it, but it did contribute to the bickering between them. In Pete’s words, “Your Ma is working the television right now as I’m writing. She sure likes it, and so do I. But we can’t always agree on what to look at. I like comedy and she likes something emotional. I tell her I don’t care to listen to other people’s imaginary troubles. I want something funny and I like sports. Boxing and rasling [wrestling].”

To be continued...

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 4 - The Farm

 Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

Pete went back to where he started in life, as a farmer. He purchased a 160 acre farm on the northeast quarter of Section 32 of Clyde township – or, in simpler terms, south of Huron, four miles west on the Virgil Road, and ¾ mile north. He raised cattle, hogs, and grain for feed, and later added another 120 acres. Ella had a big garden and raised chickens, and made sure the livestock was

watered and cows were milked. Ella did the household baking at that point. They worked together but fought and bickered a lot.

As with the bakery, Pete also made a success out of his farm. In addition to his crops, he sold his produce to local businesses – cream to the cream station, eggs to the local Red Owl grocery store and Manolis Grocery, and turkeys to the Swift & Co. processing plant.

Things were not always easy on the farm though, especially during the Great Depression, when a severe drought and dust storms had widespread effects across the whole country. Consecutive years of drought resulted in the once-fertile soil drying up and blowing away, carried far and wide. In Beadle County, Pete’s daughter Lillian recalled sealing up the house at the first sign of a dust storm but even with rugs rolled up against the door frame, the minute particles found their way inside the house, inside the cupboards, and permeated clothes and blankets. There was no escaping the horrendous dust.

Crops failed year after year. When the farmers failed, the local businesses failed. Between 1930 and 1940, over 50,000 people left the state. And of the ones who stayed, 40% needed public assistance to survive.

And then came the locusts – the voracious locusts. The scorching dry weather allowed them to reproduce and survive like never before, and Pete said the huge swarms of them actually blocked out the sun at times. From dirt blowing into the house, to crop failure, to locusts, life was a huge challenge.

July of 1936 found Pete desperately trying to save his crops from a severe grasshopper infestation. One local reporter visiting the Christensen farm said, “Grasshoppers were looming up in clouds, jumping from one green stalk of corn to the next one, utterly mowing it down as neatly as any farm mower could cut it.” Many other farmers were walking away from farming. But Pete remained optimistic. He had paid $22,000 on the farm and still owed $2500 on it, and had no intention of leaving it under those circumstances. “I’ve seen crops, wonderful crops; that’s why I’m sticking.” Though Pete’s grain and corn crops were devastated, he was still hoping to salvage his barley and wheat fields. Besides the grasshoppers, the lack of rain was a problem. Pete felt that if they could just get a good rain, it would help the grasshopper problem, and if it would just rain hard for three days it would kill them. But he got neither. Fortunately, all was not completely lost – he had good luck with his hogs that spring with each sow having a big litter. He had nine milk cows, but what he got for the cream didn’t begin to pay for his groceries. But it was something. He said, “I’ll stick as long as I own my farm. I’ve got to stick – and wait for a good year.”

And those good years did come. By 1940 the drought was considerably better for area farmers and the Christensens were no exception. Daughter Lillian and her husband bought a farm about a mile from Pete and Ella and daughter Edna and her husband were also in the area, both couples bringing grandchildren into Pete and Ella’s lives. “Grandpa Pete” and “Grandma Pete” saw a lot of those children and they all forged happy memories of spending time on the farm. Granddaughter Betty used to follow Ella around the yard, wearing her floppy hat and using rhubarb leaves as umbrellas. She’d sit on Ella’s watering cart, slide down the banister, and play dress-up with the old clothes in the attic. She’d help feed chickens, gather eggs, and look for hidden baby kittens of which there were plenty. She recalls that every day after lunch they’d lay down for a nap and the kids always knew when she was safely asleep as she’d snore quite loudly. That was their opportunity to get up and have some unsupervised fun. But on one occasion, grandson Bobby got his head stuck between the bars on the banister of the stairway! Ella was remembered as tough, but at the same time sentimental and soft and loving. She was also known for her singing, which was brutally off-key, which Pete loved to tease her about. There was a lot of fighting between them, but when push came to shove, they took care of each other.

When Pete wasn’t tending to his livestock and crops, he loved to listen to radio and had a large, battery-operated model sitting in their living room, there being no electricity at the time. He absolutely loved wrestling, and without a doubt tuned into the matches every chance he got.

To be continued...

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 3 - Bell Bakery

 Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

1907 and 1908 were the years of change for Pete. In 1907 he traveled to California, planting seeds for what would later become a major change in direction, and in 1908 he went back to Denmark. Why he returned isn’t known, but when he re-entered the U.S. he was listed as a “non-immigrant alien.” He arrived back in Iowa in March. Sometime in this time period he met Clarence H. Bell, a bakery owner in Missouri Valley, Iowa. How they made their acquaintance isn’t apparent. Missouri Valley is about 25 miles from Council Bluffs. Bell, a 38-year-old business man teamed up with the 24-year-old baker and they went into business together. In 1908 they bought the City Bakery in Huron, South Dakota, a location neither man had ties to, but the City Bakery was a good acquisition after a number of failures for previous owners. Bell explained, “I first saw the town in 1908. I had come up to South Dakota from Missouri Valley, Iowa, where I had been in the bakery business for 10 years. I felt that this state showed great possibilities, so I looked several cities over and finally decided on Huron. Huron didn’t have a bakery then, and I knew I could make money there. It kept me hopping about 16 hours a day, and a half a day on Sunday.”

Bell Bakery is the two-story wood frame building to the left of the large Costain Music Store.

They purchased the bakery on September 23 and relocated to Huron immediately. The Bell Bakery was open for business by October 17, advertising that they took phone orders and made deliveries, and their products were already on store shelves. Bell ran the business and Pete produced the products. Together they were a profitable team. Pete had a good work ethic and was a hard worker. The products put out by Bell Bakery were high quality, and while there were other bakeries in town over the years, Bell Bakery had no real competition.

The Bell Bakery delivery cart, about 1909

The bakers: Pete Christensen is pictured 2nd from right, and his
brother Soren is 3rd from right.  Photo taken about 1911.

Pete lived in an apartment above the bakery. Two of his three brothers also became bakers, and one of them, Soren, worked and lived with Pete for 7 years. After service in World War I, Soren went on to have a lengthy and successful baking career in Omaha, Nebraska, where many members of the family had migrated to.

While Clarence Bell was an astute businessman, Pete was responsible for the products they put out. He was especially known for his Fruit-Filled Cookies and people would come from miles around for them, especially at Christmas time. His daughter, Lillian, still remembered them 50 years afterward.

Pete’s recipes were written down, but only as a list of ingredients. He kept the details “in his head.” One of his ingredients was referred to only as “ammonia.” This odd sounding ingredient actually refers to baker’s ammonia, or ammonium bicarbonate, which was used as a leavening agent before baking soda or baking powder were used. When heated, the ammonium bicarbonate breaks down into ammonia, water, and carbon dioxide, the latter of which causes the baked goods to rise, but the ammonia can affect the flavor. Therefore, it was only used in relatively "flat" baked goods like cookies, so that the ammonia gas could escape.

On May 6, 1911, Pete married Gabriella “Ella” Monsen, a Norwegian immigrant who came to the U. S. at age 19, just three years after Pete. She was the first in her family to leave Norway, her widowed mother saving money to pay her passage. She went to her paternal aunt near Howard, South Dakota, about 60 miles from Huron, to learn English. How or when Pete and Ella became acquainted isn’t known, but Ella worked as a household servant in Norway and may have done likewise in Huron too. They purchased a home on Beach avenue in Huron and started their family a year later. Their children were: Lillian (b. 1912), Raymond (b. 1914), Clarence (b. 1917), Edna (b. 1919) and Sylvia (b. 1924).

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In 1914 there were big changes for Bell Bakery. The land on which the building sat was to be the site of the new 3-story I.O.O.F. building, so Bell Bakery had to move – building and all. As the local newspaper of July 16, 1914, reported, “The Bell Bakery is now comfortably located on Fourth street just off the avenue, after a somewhat tempestuous journey across the street and around the corner. The building held together very well, until nearly in place, when a section of the south wall bulged badly. This will not, however, be a serious matter, as it was braced up at once. Work on the new Odd Fellow block will begin at once.” In the photo to the left, you can see the two-story building with the braces through the front windows.  The new I.O.O.F. building was completed toward the end of October, and Bell Bakery moved into one of the two ground-level store spaces. The old wood-frame building was to be sold to the highest bidder in December, to be moved immediately.

Above: The new I.O.O.F. building, with Bell Bakery on the main floor in the store front to the right.

The back room of the bakery.  Pete is pictured at left.

In addition to pastries, cookies, and specialty cakes, the bakery had a capacity of 10,000 loaves of bread daily.

In 1920, Pete’s life took a turn when he decided to get out of the bakery business. He sold his interest to Erwin Schmidt, a native of Germany who was raised in Minnesota. In 1915 Schmidt had moved to Huron and taken a job at the A. W. Hopkins bakery. Schmidt would eventually become sole owner of Bell Bakery when Clarence Bell retired in 1931.

To be continued...

Some photos courtesy of Cynthia Christensen and Ree Lyons

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 2 - The Immigration

 Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

The S. S. New York

It was April 20, 1901 when Pete boarded the ocean liner S. S. New York from Southampton, England. Southampton was a major, established point of departure for transatlantic voyages. At the time of this boat’s launch in 1893 it was called The City of New York and was the largest and fastest ocean liner crossing the Atlantic. The massive boat was 528 feet long and 63 feet wide and could accommodate 290 first-class, 250 second class, and 725 third-class passengers. This ship, in 1912, had the notoriety of nearly colliding with the Titanic on the latter ship’s maiden voyage departing Southampton.

Pete stepped foot on American soil on April 30 after a ten-day journey. He was 16 years and 11 months old, could read and write, and claimed “farmer” as vocation. His final destination was Exira, Iowa, where surprisingly his maternal grandfather, Peder C. Larsen lived. From there, he boarded a train for Iowa.

Peder and Jacobine Larsen

Pete’s grandparents, Peder and Jacobina Larsen, had immigrated between 1890 and 1895 in order to join the rest of their children - Soren, Niels, Anna and Kjersten - who had come to the United States about 1886. Their daughter Elsie, Pete’s mother, was the only one of their children opting to stay in Denmark.

It was said that Pete learned the baking trade from an uncle in Omaha, Nebraska, but there is no known uncle in Omaha at that particular time. Pete appears to have stayed in Exira until 1903, possibly helping out on his uncle and grandfather’s farm. In 1903, his older sister Katrina and her family immigrated and joined Pete in Exira. Katrina’s husband, Jens Jensen, was a baker in Denmark and established himself in that occupation in Council Bluffs, Iowa. About the same time, Pete also moved to Council Bluffs, where he learned the baking trade and worked for bakers in the city for the next four years. It is entirely possible that he apprenticed with his brother-in-law, Jens Jensen.

One by one, most of his siblings made their way to Iowa, several of them helped by Pete to immigrate, and he helped them get settled. His brother Chris and sister Katrina arrived in 1903; Laura in 1908; Caroline in 1909; Soren in 1910; and Martinas in 1911 and Mary sometime before 1919. Only Gjertrud stayed behind in Denmark.

Back in Denmark, Pete’s mother Elsie married Jens Eriksen, a neighbor 11 years her junior, and the two of them also immigrated in 1911, settling in Omaha, Nebraska, across the river from Council Bluffs.

To be continued...

Four Dollars and a Dream - The Story of Peter Christensen - Part 1 - The Beginning

I didn’t grow up knowing much about Pete Christensen except he was born in Denmark, owned Bell Bakery in Huron, and could be a little prickly for his family to get along with. It wasn’t until I started researching his life that I discovered that there is a lot more to my great-grandfather that just those three facts.  

To understand Pete, you have to understand where he came from.  His story began in Døstrup, Hinstead Herred, Ålborg County, Denmark, the land where his father's family lived for several generations  His father, Laust (also known as Lars) Christian Christensen was a lieutenant in the Danish army, whose parents died young,  He married Elsie Kirstine Pedersen from Torslev in November of 1880, three months after the birth of their first child, Ane Katrine.  Their second child, Gjertrud, was named after Laust's mother. and then came Peter, on the 18th of May, 1884, the third of eleven children and the oldest son

Laust/Lars & Elsie Christensen

In 1890, the family lived on a farm and consisted of Laust (33), Elsie (30), Gjertrud (8), Peder (5) and Marianne (3). Laust was a farmer. “Katrina” was about ten years old and is not listed in the household. The family was poor – as soon as the kids reached ten or twelve years of age, they were sent to live in other households to work – the boys as farm laborers, and the girls as household servants, taking care of kids and keeping house. Katrina had likely assumed these duties in another household by this time.

By 1896, Laust acquired the position of “landpost”, or our equivalent of a postman. The last of their eleven children, Karl, was born in 1900 and died the same year at eight months of age. Life was hard; Laust had tuberculosis and was unable to do his job much of the time so Elsie quietly did it in his place.

Sometime before the year 1900, it had been Pete’s turn to leave his parents’ household and provide for himself. He was working as a farm laborer in 1900, some distance from home. Laust Christensen succumbed to tuberculosis in March of 1901 at the age of 44. Within a month 16 year old Peter Christensen was on a boat bound for the United States with $4 in his pocket.

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Before continuing with Pete’s journey, I think it’s important to know some of what the younger children experienced after the death of their father. Elsie still had four children in the household ranging in age from four to nine, and she needed a way to support them. With Laust’s job gone, she packed up her family and moved to the city where she took a job at a brewery. The older children took care of the younger children but they were largely on their own. Her daughter Caroline, seven years old at the time, recalled in her diary, “I don’t remember when we got ready for school, but it was up to Laura to see that we got ready. The boys were so young. I know there were times we never got to school.” She went on to say, “Sometimes Mother would lock us in our apartment for a whole day and we had to feed ourselves. As we got older, we were a wild bunch. Laura would get us into all kinds of mischief. I know we sometimes even stole things. We used to take a sack and go down to the harbor when the big ships would come in. They would bring coal in from foreign lands. We would pick it up when they spilled some. That was what we kept warm with. I know we were poor, but Mother would not take help from anyone.” She described her mother as a “beautiful, proud woman,” but also “hard” and not very affectionate toward her children. As the children were sent to other households, most were compliant, but Laura ran away several times. It was a hard life for them, and they rarely went to see their mother once they left the household. They were required to stay in the other homes until their confirmation, at which time most of them left Denmark completely.

To be continued...

Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here

Some photos courtesy of Barbara Johnson and Cynthia Christensen